How To Choose Park Reservations

[okduke]

Good morning! My DW and I are typically pretty well-informed WDWers but have not really kept up with Disney's adjustments in our COVID world. We have our vaccines, though and are happy to start planning a trip for early January 2022. We have our reservation and have purchased our 6-day park hopper tickets. Now, the new step is the subject of this post: How do you decide which park to reserve for each day of your trip? I understand that some part of this decision is associated with our own preferences, but I'd appreciate any tips or strategies that you would be willing to share. Like, one I've heard before is never go to Magic Kingdom on Monday...lots of families attend weekend to weekend and they want to start at MK, so Mondays at MK are tough.

We will be there for 6 days (though 2 of those days will be arrival/departure days) and will want to hit all of the parks because we will have someone with us who has not been before.

Thank you for any tips!

 

[bashuck]

Are you park hopping? If yes I’d suggest not making a reservation for EPCOT as it doesn’t open until 11am. Better to just park hop there in the afternoon and go to a park that opens earlier.

 

[okduke]

Are you park hopping? If yes I’d suggest not making a reservation for EPCOT as it doesn’t open until 11am. Better to just park hop there in the afternoon and go to a park that opens earlier.

EXCELLENT POINT! Thank you so much!

 

[glocon]

Or make EP your arrival day park since it’s open late.

 

[loves to dive]

I made Epcot my arrival day and have PHs so plan on hopping over there every day. Then I just sort of threw everything against the wall. My trip in April is only 4 nights/5 days with arrival day and departure day being short days. So I decided which parks I thought might be full days or 3/4 days (since I plan on hopping to Epcot to enjoy F&G) and booked those on my full days. I booked HS mid trip and on departure day in case I don't get ROTR the first time.

 

[Kerr84]

I always have good luck with MK on Sundays even though some websites will tell you not to book MK on Sundays. I booked HS for Saturday because Saturday is the busiest day at the other parks and HS is full every day, so HS won't feel anymore full on a Saturday. Other than that, I just pick based on how I want things spaced out. I have heard to avoid EPCOT on the weekends if there is a festival going on. We are doing a split stay this time at Caribbean Beach so I made sure to book Epcot and HS when we are staying there. Then we are moving to AKL so I made sure to book AK when we are there.

Right now with park reservations and 35% capacity, it is very hard to predict which parks you should visit on which day. The normal recommendations don't always hold up.

 

[Pinkshoos]

This is just my nerd thing, but before I go, I look at the wait times on the app a few times a day. I pay attention to the days that have lower wait times at specific parks. I use Touring Plans crowd calendars, but I prefer tracking it myself. Plus, it's just fun for me.

Now, I'm not an every day park person. I'll do a park, and then have a chill day, but if I were to do a park every day, I'd take it easy. Slow the pace and have plenty of times to just rest and enjoy the surroundings. I'm always amazed at how much work is put into the landscaping of MK, and on my last trip, I thought it was amazing how much effort was put into making Epcot pretty in spite of all the construction.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

If ROTR is at all of interest to you, I would suggest reserving more than one day at DHS to maximize your chance of obtaining a BG. DHS is also typically the first park to fill up so best to have more days reserved there and change to another park if you get the BG on the first day.

I have 6 day park hoppers for next week and I reserved 2 days at MK, 1 day at AK, and 3 at DHS. We will hop to Epcot in the evenings (for us one day at AK is plenty, but if it's a favorite of yours I think 2 days at each park besides Epcot would be good - assuming you have hoppers).

 

[mkb3]

Has anyone been denied the ability to park hop because of capacity? I haven't seen reports of this.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Has anyone been denied the ability to park hop because of capacity? I haven't seen reports of this.

As of yet, no